Previous research on cognitive aging has focused on older adults' deficits of verbatim recall when compared to young adults. This project examines text summarization which may be a more ecologically valid task for older adults than verbatim recall. There are two specific hypotheses to be addressed in the proposed research. First, is there an interaction between aging and task such that older adults exhibit deficits in verbatim recall but not summarization? To answer this question, Experiment 1 will compare young and older adults' recall and summarization of texts. This investigation will be an Age Group (young vs old) by Task (verbatim recall vs summarization) by Text Type (descriptive vs procedural) factorial design. Age Group will be a between-subjects factor; Task and Text Type will be within subjects factors. It is hypothesized the older adults' deficits in verbatim recall may arise from the use of a task with which older adults are not familiar and practiced. An advantage for older adults' in summarization may arise from the use of a familiar ecologically valid task. If so, there should be a cross-over interaction of age group x task for the proportion of central ideas recalled or included in summaries. Second, are older adults able to accurately summarize textual material presented in other modalities, specifically television programs? To answer this questions, Experiment 2 will compare young and older adults' recall and summarizes of television programs. This investigation will be an Age Group (young vs old) by Task (verbatim recall vs summarization) by Program Type (nature show vs news report) factorial design. Age Group will be a between-subjects factor; Task and Text Type will be within-subjects factors. Again, it is anticipated that there should be a cross-over interaction of age group x task for the proportion of central ideas recalled or included in the summaries. An age-group disadvantage for recall will be replaced with an age-group advantage for summarization if older adults performance depends on task familiarity and ecological validity.